Pennington Marsh - 28th September

The day was something of a change to the summer like warmth of recent late-September days, a cold front had pushed south overnight bringing with it a cold north-east wind and a fall in temperature from the mid-twenties to the mid-teens - the day had a definate late autumn feel to it. My time was limited and so I walked a swift loop around Jetty, Butts, Fishtail and out to Keyhaven Lagoons and spent a little time around the Old Tip area. It was fairly slow going but the Temminck's Stint showed well in the gloom on Fishtail Lagoon and the Grey Phalarope from recent days was still present but did not show particularly well. Also on the lagoon were three Spotted Redshank.

Numbers of wader and wildlfowl are starting to climb with 65 Grey Plover, 175 Teal and 55 Turnstone present. Summer migrants were poorly represented with just eight Swallow, single Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Wheatear and Blackcap and four Yellow Wagtail. A flock of 69 Lapwing flew in very high from the north and looked like they may have been arriving migrants.

Temminck's Stint - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Temminck's Stint - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Spotted Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Lapwing - Arriving high from north over Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Grey Plover, Knot and Turnstone - Butts Bay, Pennington Marsh

Curlew - Off Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marsh